they had helped to construct, should, all at once, overnight, be demo-lished. The graves of those Marxist intellectuals who could have helped the Party in a democratic way to resolve the dilemmas and con-flicts had long sińce been overgrown with grass. Realizing that the stakes were too high and the risks too great, the Party apparatus, which had been built on the monopolist principle, had to »free« itself of those members in a very short space of time, using all the political police. Although that action brought about an exceptionally signific-ant historical result - for the country’s independence was preservcd -it had also some negative consequences which had a lasting influence on the development of Yugoslav society. Thus the social power which was at that time strengthened by the political police can be felt very strongly even today. The Party, in those times of historical necessity, assumed the shape - what irony for Gramsci’s conception of »collect-ive intellectual« - of a »collective policeman«. This would be repeated in some later moments of Yugoslav social development. It is necessary to stress here, especially with regard to these later moments in our development, that from the first day the most faithful, the most dev-oted, the most promising and the most obedient of Party personnel were selected for the ranks of the political police. From the first day the connection between the personnel section of the Party apparatus and the political police was exceptionallv strong, if in fact it is pos-sible to speak of a connection and not rather of an Identification, con-sidering the number of Party personnel who were in one way or an-other connected with the political police. Thus the bureaucratic men-tality united with the police mentality.
What in fact did the orientation of Yugoslav society towards Self-management mean? Theoretically it meant the beginning of a process abolishing hired labor, freeing the workers as human beings from hir-ed relationships and from any form of authority exercised over their work or the products of their work.
However, the fact that Self-management began as a political process illustrates the domination of political centers of power in the society which initiated that process. From the sphere of politics Self-management could advance only in two directions: into the sphere of ideology or into economics. And indeed it did move in these directions. Self-management, in its political form, crossed the thresholds of factories, businesses, educational, health and similar social establish-ments. In factories it spread through the management and economic units. On the other hand even the organs of government were named so as to indlcate the development of society in the direction of Self-management. Thus the government became the Executive Council, the Ministries became Secretariats, and even the Communist Party changed itself into the League of Communists. But in fact these chan-ges are a elear proof that Self-management had been even further
transformed into an ideology.
What part did the workers play in the development of Self-management? To answer this question is at least partially and indirectiy_ to give an answer also the question whether the working class had be-come the basie initiator of social development, the mamstay of the
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